Pursuant to Section 3107 of the Ohio Revised Code
- Only an agency or attorney may arrange an adoption.
- A petition for adoption shall be filed in the county in which the person to be adopted was born, or in which, at the time of filing the petition, the petitioner or the person to be adopted or parent of the person to be adopted resides, or in which the petitioner is stationed in military service, or in which the agency having the permanent custody of the person to be adopted is located.
- Adoption records are confidential and not available to the public.
An Agency adoption concerns children placed with an agency for adoption, or who have been placed with an agency by a Juvenile Court.
An independent adoption is an adoption that is arranged with a child-placing agency acting as the placement agent. Independent adoptions are permitted in Ohio only where the criteria of ORC Section 5103.16(D) are met.
Rules for Step-parent adoptions apply also to grandparents and guardians.